As Salena entered the armored vehicle that would take her back to the palace, she took a deep breath and held it for several seconds before exhaling slowly. The car was empty save for herself so she allowed herself a victorious smile. The deed was done.
In a few weeks they would bury Peter Sten and this dirty business. Alos, the despicable Azuren who stole her daughter away from her, would crown her Archduchess of Magdeborg. Even with victory secure she could not shake the fear and stress from her mind. So much accomplished, so much more to do, and so much more that could go wrong.
Kristoffer
Captain of the MacCleod
27 February, 23,423
MacCleod, Mkuranga, Caeph Dominion
______________
Chris rubbed his forehead so roughly that it began to redden rivaling the heat of embarrassment that burned on his face. Lord Pershing and the Dominion garrison had dismissed his service out of hand and sent him away with nothing but empty promises and blood money. Drayton would get his money and the crew would certainly be paid for their trouble, but it would not be enough to assuage his wounded pride. He tried rubbing at his temples where his SESE tattoos linked. There was a spacer belief that it would relieve stress and headaches, even more serious pain, but Chris had no success.
“You ready, Chris?” Nick asked quietly.
Chris looked up into the young man's face. They hadn't spoken personally beyond the usual chatter between captain and crew as the MacCleod jumped from Letterkenny to Mkuranga. Chris had, in fact, been partly avoiding him. Nick would never say anything, but Chris knew what he was thinking. He had been right. This mission had been foolish and stupid at every level. He'd risked his crew, his ship, and his reputation for what? To aid the enemy of his homeland, at the cost of the dead Hronguards and whatever damage Pershing would reap on Goteborg. Sure, Drayton would praise him for a job well done, but he would write off the Hronguards as collateral damage, pay their firm for the losses and move on.
Chris should have told him to shove that job up his own ass or even defied Drayton and taken the Dominion prisoners of war to Goteborg to return them to whatever detention center from which they'd escaped. Nick would have been happy, the Hronguards would be alive and Chris' ego and dignity would be intact. Sir Ian Evers might even have bought him a new ship, the beginnings of his very own fleet. Drayton might have been executed for treason, but Chris was actually beginning to feel okay with that.
Chris nodded. “Take us home. I want to be back in Garda and get that drive offloaded immediately.”
He was actually looking forward to transporting cargo across the Commonwealth again. He'd like to avoid pirates and using the ship's weapons again. A small part of him took pride in fighting off the Black Lotus though. The Cleod had never seen combat before and yet, somehow, they'd managed to hold off two Black Lotus frigates and a boarding party. Often, when cargo vessels in deep space were attacked, their crews were killed, their cargo was stolen and that was the end of it. Defying the Lotus was almost a thrill, a great adventure, and for about half an hour, he played the role of the bold star ship captain valiantly fighting evil with his crew just like in the movies. He was anything but bold, more like terrified out of his mind and the only fighting he did was shooting a man as he slipped in a pool of blood.
What kind of ripples would that little encounter have? Would the Lotus actually think twice about hitting cargo ships?
The Black Lotus Society had roots in every major human state and beyond. They were a significant faction, so a loss of two frigates and a two dozen marines would hardly be a blip on the radar. The space around Mkuranga was clear, so it was unlikely Captain Nordu Yurani would be out looking for revenge. Maybe he was dead. Chris secretly hoped so.
“Jump the ship,” Nick instructed Chen.
Chris felt the gentle tug of the generators as the jump drive booted up. Briefly he felt as if he was being stretched by the gravitational field as it sought a clear way through light years of voidspace to deliver him safely to Goteborg. It was accompanied by a falling sensation, the dropping out of one's stomach as the ship was sucked into the field, then returned to normal space on the other side like a stretched rubber band snapping back to its former shape.
Immediately an alarm was sounded. Chen straightened at the webbing that gripped at his head and face, his mind querying the ship for the source of the problem. He felt the ship shudder slightly as his eyes flicked to the display board. A much deeper rumble echoed through the hull, jolting the command crew in their seats and momentarily disrupting Chen's link with the ship.
“Commonwealth vessel,” Proda reported somberly. “Battleship.”
A voice came through the bridge's speaker system. “Attention, MacCleod. This is Knight-Colonel Aaron Mercer-Sten of the Commonwealth Royal Navy. Hold your position and prepare for a boarding party. You are found to be in violation of sovereign space.”
Chris glanced at Proda in confusion. He shrugged. “They overrode the communications network. They've got us in their gravity well. I don't think we have enough Hronguards to fend them off.”
Nick snapped back. “Don't be stupid, we're not going to fire on Commonwealth marines.”
Chris was not about to repeat his earlier mistake. He activated the link again. “Royal Navy vessel, we are prepared to allow you to board.”
The Cleod's cameras located the vessel and displayed it on the screens. The huge ship was nestled a few hundred kilometers just above them. Chris realized they'd nearly jumped right into it.
When the link was closed: “They're going to find the drive and the mask,” Claire snapped.
“I know.”
“We're going to be screwed.”
“I know! Knock it off!”
Chris glared back at his twin. She bristled at the retort and seethed silently. He could feel her anger wrapping around him like a cloak. For some reason, despite everything, Chris still found it easy to be angry with her.
“They must have tracked us when we left the system earlier. We were getting those pings, remember? They were sitting here waiting for us,” Nick said.
“For days?”
“Apparently.”
“We don't have a choice in the matter,” Chris reported, resigned to the boarding. He was about to signal the hangar to be opened, but Proda stopped him.
“Hold on. More signals, incoming vessels!” Proda shouted.
More Commonwealth vessels to handle a simple freighter? He thought angrily. Pershing would have moved very quickly to organize something like that.
“They're Black Lotus! They're opening fire on the Commonwealth ship,” Chen reported.
“Get us out of here then,” Chris ordered.
Chen shook his head. “We're still in the gravity well. We're stuck here until the Commonwealth says otherwise.”
Chris saw the lights flash red and yellow indicating weapons fire and hits on his screens. The camera snapped quickly to acquire the new arrivals. The Lotus had brought a small fleet with them, a dozen frigates, several support ships and a handful of battle cruisers which was certainly enough to overwhelm even the Commonwealth battleship.
“Get our own guns going then. We're not going down without a fight,” Chris snarled feeling his nerves begin to fray again.
Chen hesitated. “At whom, sir?”
Chris narrowed his brow in confusion. “The Lotus ships,” he said slowly.
He surely didn't think we'd open fire on a Commonwealth battleship?
Nick began relaying orders to the port side guns manned by the surviving Hronguards. Chris could feel the ship rattle with the shooting.
“Look, it's the Labored Soul,” Proda pointed out the signals on one of his monitors. “I think they tracked us, too.”
“Aren't we popular,” Nick commented dryly.
“There's too many of them,” Chris said softly. Small Lotus fighter craft were zipping around the Commonwealth vessel, scoring hits all along its spine. There was no way it would stand up t
o the Lotus fleet, and the MacCleod was a sitting duck. Other fighters turned their attention to the Cleod and strafed the ship from bow to stern. Lights flashed all along the ship reporting moderate damage. Not something she could handle for long.
“Get me in touch with the Commonwealth ship, Proda.”
Proda quickly manipulated the controls, opening a line to the larger Commonwealth vessel.
“Knight-Colonel Mercer-Sten, this is Kristoffer.”
He waited patiently before the voice of Sir Aaron returned. “We're a bit busy here. We haven't forgotten you and I'm afraid I can't release you.”
“You can't win, Colonel. They're too powerful for a lone ship, even one as strong as yours. We need to get out of here,” Chris said.
The return voice was full of desperation. He understood the dire situation as well. “The Azuren station is too far. We can send a distress call to the Commonwealth Navy, but that will take time. We will hold until they arrive.”
“We don't have time for reinforcements, sir. I can't withstand their attack. I don't think you can either.”
The comm was silent for many panicked heartbeats. “If you slave your navigation computer to ours we can use the jump drive to get to Wastert,” Chris added, hoping for a response.
The line was silent for a few more moments. Dimly, he could hear Mercer-Sten giving orders, shouting at his crew to adjust their fire.
Nick shook his head and whispered. “He won't do it, Chris. The ramifications for nobility engaged in illegal activity is too much. He'd rather sacrifice himself out here than resort to that.”
Chris ignored him and opened the link again. “How many more of your people need die, Colonel? We only have a limited amount of time that we can do this.”
There was more shouting and then what sounded like an explosion.
“We know you have the drive installed on your ship. I don't like the idea of using this technology, Captain. It is too far beneath me,” the Commonwealth knight replied.
Nick nudged Chris' arm to say, I told you so.
“Would you prefer to die out here? The drive mask will hide the jump from passive sensors. Unless someone is looking right at us, they'll never detect it.”
There was another long pause. More fire was pouring into the Commonwealth ship. A few more fighters had locked on to the MacCleod and raked her again with strafing runs. Red lights began to flash along the hull indicating breaches. The batteries were not quick enough to hit fighter craft coming in at hundreds of kilometers per hour, and they offered only a meek response to the guns on the Lotus ships.
“Breach in cargo six,” Chen reported. “Closing it now.”
He needs to make up his mind or we're all going to die out here.
Finally the knight came back on. “Do it. Our pilot will link our ship to yours.”
Chris severed the communication. “Kerali, can we even do this?”
“I can't guarantee anything,” she said as another wave of fear threatened to overwhelm her. She visibly calmed herself. “The drive is still cooling. Even if I use the all power the ship has we might not make it to Wastert. And then the Commonwealth ship, too? If we don't make Wastert we'll be in voidspace with a wrecked drive and an angry Commonwealth warship.”
“Can we draw power from the Commonwealth vessel into the drive?” Chris asked.
Chen spoke up. “I can feel their power systems through the link. I can draw the energy from the engines and other systems into the drive. It'll be dangerous-”
“Do it.”
After a few moments that seemed like years, Chen reported the successful slaving of the Commonwealth ship's navigation computer to the jump drives. The tattoos on his body began to glow a brilliant green. He was using every atom of his being to alter the Commonwealth ship's power grid, forcing it into the drive.
Through clenched teeth, Chen uttered a successful transfer.
“Jump!”
Chris felt the sickening lurch in his stomach again as the ship generated a hole in space, and both vessels slid through. The lights in the bridge went out and through the view ports, Chris could see the starfield shifting, warped and twisted, the star lines dragged out and pushed into bizarre shapes that made him ill. His brain could not handle the visual overload. When the universe stopped shaking, he opened his eyes.
“Status report?” He breathed.
Chen was quiet. Proda checked his readouts and referred to the screens. “Both ships made it through. The Commonwealth ship sustained heavy damage before the jump, but she seems to have held together. It'll require some serious repair efforts.”
“And us?”
“A few new dents, but no more breaches. The jump drive seems to be responding, but I wouldn't dare use it until it cooled down,” Kerali said.
“Chen, are you okay?”
The pilot was silent. Chen seemed to have collapsed into the webbing, his arms limp inside. His tattoos were glowing more intensely than anything Chris had been before. His body actually steamed.
“Chen?” Chris repeated getting out of his chair.
Claire stood up and shakily made her way to the pilot's alcove. She checked his pulse then pulled her fingers away from his throat as if she'd been burned. She released the webbing from his face and hands and he slumped to the floor. His eyes were open and bloodshot and blood oozed from his ears and nose, his skin was still steaming.
Claire shook her head. “He's gone,” she choked.
“Amrah...” Chris uttered.
Claire sank to her knees, stroking the dead pilot's hair while the rest of the crew watched in stunned silence.
“The Commonwealth is boarding,” Proda said.
Chris worked his mouth, but no sound came out. He wiped a hand through his hair.
How could this happen?
It was one thing to watch the Hronguards and Dominion soldiers die. At least they were prepared for combat, understood the risks. Chen was just trying to get through this trip. He wasn't supposed to be in danger.
“Here they come,” Nick said flatly.
Chris crossed his arms over his chest and glared down at the Commonwealth officers who'd boarded his ship. They could not possibly have missed the bloodstains and shell casings his crew hadn't had the chance to handle, yet.
“What in Ithix happened here,” Sir Aaron Mercer-Sten asked. One of his bodyguards entered the bridge, his weapon trained on the crew.
“Out. Now,” Sir Aaron ordered. The crew followed him out into the common area next to the living quarters. Chris gripped Claire's shoulder, trying to be reassuring. She looked back at Chen's body, still steaming on the bridge floor.
Chris and the crew settled in chairs watched carefully by the House Mercer marines.
A woman joined Sir Aaron a few minutes later. “There's bodies in one of the cargo bays. Who did you all piss off?”
“We just ran into them,” Chris said bluntly.
“No kidding. Why are Black Lotus after you?”
“I'd prefer not to say.”
She sneered. Sir Aaron eyed him suspiciously then left with the woman for an inspection of the bays.
A medical team rolled a gurney down the hall. The crew watched them, almost mesmerized, as they passed. A few minutes later they came back. They'd placed Chen in a black body bag and rolled him away. Chris looked away sharply. He's dead because of me.
The surviving Hronguards were disarmed and led to a different part of the ship for processing. The sergeant was still alive, but he never had the opportunity to thank her. The Hronguards had been virtually annihilated, only a half dozen of the original twenty remained alive and half of them were wounded. He never really did understand the mercenaries. They fought, killed and died for money. This was just a job for them, a job with extreme risks and few rewards. War was simply business.
Sir Aaron returned with the woman and they conferred for a moment before Aaron turned to address Chris.
“I remember you. That foolish spacer who tried to stand betwee
n Sir Slader and the child on Garda.” Sir Aaron began. “Brave, but foolish.”
Chris bowed his head slightly in deference to the noble. “Your friend didn't like me very much.”
“That makes two of us. I think you have a lot of explaining to do here,” Sir Aaron said.
Chris glanced at Nick who seemed unwilling to offer any suggestions. He looked away at the empty pilot's webbing. “We made a delivery in Dominion space and were returning to port,” he said simply.
Sir Aaron narrowed his brow, annoyed at the weak lie. “You've been in a firefight, a considerable one by the look of it. I have a feeling it explains those Black Lotus ships in Goteborg. You managed to piss somebody off enough that they'd enter occupied space to chase you.”
“We were ambushed when we entered Letterkenny and boarded. Our guard fought them off and captured several who were turned over to local authorities. They probably didn't like getting beat by a civilian freighter,” Chris said.
“One that's sporting weapons that would rival military vessels of the same size. Barely legal hardware, Captain,” the knight said.
Kerali spoke up, “Merchant freighters have the right to be armed.”
“Fair enough,” Mercer-Sten said, shrugging. “And you took a significant number of casualties. We found the bodies.”
“Yes,” he said simply.
The female with Aaron cleared her throat. “And for what did they die?”
Her name tag read “Reyna.”
Chris felt his heart sink.“Routine cargo hauling.”
The female shook her head. “I'm getting bored. What were you hauling?”
Schism of Blood and Stone (The Starfield Theory Book 1) Page 20
